I finally got line on the reel and to my surprise it produced a whopping 45lbs of drag!. Problem is the handle did not turn. The handle turns at 25lbs of drag which I feel is still good. Now the reel is not equipped with bellvilles. Instead it has a spacer washer. Im wondering if spring washers will help with the handle. Also I think maybe trying the angular contact bearings to see if it helps with the severe handle bind.

Well, the thing with that is that these reels work a little differently than most. Here, i described it a post on another forum a long time ago:

"The thing with those reels, is that the action of the drag lever over its arc moves things in two distinct stages. The first being the jump from freespool into the drag range, the second being an actual increase in drag pressure. In the first stage, the drag lever shifts a brass plate out of three divots in the reel's RSP. These are pretty delicate. Putting too much pressure on them by cranking up the preset will eventually cause wear to the divots. In the second stage, the drag lever turns a very small gear which turns a very large gear which has a very fine thread, which in turn presses the spool against the drag washer. The sum total lateral movement induced by the drag lever in the drag range is incredibly small-- around 0.05 mm, which is about the thickness of a human hair. A more common lever drag reel would have around ten times that... In the reel as it was, the drag range from Min to Max was very little. The usual tricks of adding belleville spring washers does not apply here, since compressing a belleville spring washer by 0.05 mm will get you absolutely nowhere. Instead, the angler would be inclined to crank down the preset, which only adds to the wear on the preset divots..."

So, the spacer washer in your reel is intentional. It was designed that way. And I speculate that if you are getting 45 pounds of drag and the reel is hard to turn, it is simply because the preset is cranked way, waaay too high.

So, I think that if you put bellevilles in there, the actual increase in effective drag across the range of the drag lever will be very small. That is, there will be a jump from freespool to say, twenty pounds at the beginning of the drag lever's arc. And then like, twenty-one pounds at full.

Having said all that, I also say, why not try it anyway? Have at it; you might discover something new along the way.

Well, the thing with that is that these reels work a little differently than most. Here, i described it a post on another forum a long time ago:

"The thing with those reels, is that the action of the drag lever over its arc moves things in two distinct stages. The first being the jump from freespool into the drag range, the second being an actual increase in drag pressure. In the first stage, the drag lever shifts a brass plate out of three divots in the reel's RSP. These are pretty delicate. Putting too much pressure on them by cranking up the preset will eventually cause wear to the divots. In the second stage, the drag lever turns a very small gear which turns a very large gear which has a very fine thread, which in turn presses the spool against the drag washer. The sum total lateral movement induced by the drag lever in the drag range is incredibly small-- around 0.05 mm, which is about the thickness of a human hair. A more common lever drag reel would have around ten times that... In the reel as it was, the drag range from Min to Max was very little. The usual tricks of adding belleville spring washers does not apply here, since compressing a belleville spring washer by 0.05 mm will get you absolutely nowhere. Instead, the angler would be inclined to crank down the preset, which only adds to the wear on the preset divots..."

So, the spacer washer in your reel is intentional. It was designed that way. And I speculate that if you are getting 45 pounds of drag and the reel is hard to turn, it is simply because the preset is cranked way, waaay too high.

So, I think that if you put bellevilles in there, the actual increase in effective drag across the range of the drag lever will be very small. That is, there will be a jump from freespool to say, twenty pounds at the beginning of the drag lever's arc. And then like, twenty-one pounds at full.

Having said all that, I also say, why not try it anyway? Have at it; you might discover something new along the way.

.

Wow bad ass explanation. Makes a lot of sense. if I get some bellvilles to fit it in ill give it a shot. For now its already caught a small grouper haha and it worked just fine!!

My brother in laws reel. Its a FinNor model N99 from 1957. Tore it apart and decided to add a carbon drag in place of the old worn cork. This reel has a spacer instead of Bellvilles, but I don't have any bellvilles laying around to replace the spacer. Regardless, I'm happy overall with where the reel is at the moment. I believe we ordered the 1.5mm carbon sheet, and the 2 part loctite 330. That thing is expensive like Alan had previously said but man its strong!! The only issue here so far is th clicker. This is the second vintage FinNor I work on, and the clickers are always giving issues. Worn out, so I need a new one (which god knows if its around), or fabricate a new one (maybe a longer shaft). Other than that after shimming the reel, the drag engages. Heres some of the work.

THE OLD DRAG

REMOVED AND CLEANED OUT CORK

GLUED AND CUT OUT DRAG

ASSEMBLED!!! HAVE TO SPOOL THE REEL WITH LINE TO CHECK THE DRAG NUMBERS. ENDED UP SHIMMING THE LEFT SIDE FOR THE DRAG TO ENGAGE.

Hi John Taylor here and I know this is an old post but how did you decide this reel is from 1957 exactly ?? Was it from the model number or just the configuration of parts. I can tell it's pre mid to late 60s by some reel features or lack of them but I would love to find out if there is a way of dating by model numbers or something else I am missing ? The catalog pictures aren't the greatest either ! John Taylor